Street photography

Life is short, shoot more

May 13, 2020 by Jenxi Seow

Why waste time taking photos of things that aren’t meaningful?

I see photographers who take photos of insects, birds or others things. It is their prerogative what they chose to photograph. They make use of shallow depth of field to isolate the subjects. These photos might be meaningful to them. Perhaps it replicated a photo they have seen before. Or it freezes a memory in their lives.

However, I consider these photos lacking meaning to me, hence I rarely take such photos. I take photos of people because that’s what matters, especially people who matter.

Take more photos

When you see a good scene, take more photos. Having a family event? Out on a date? Or just chilling at home with the dog? Any time is a good time to take more photos to capture the moment.

Edit old photos

It pays to revisit old photos. Photos that you edited out previously might actually be good photos that you overlooked, or discarded due to your thoughts, emotions and bias at that moment.

When you edited the photos, you might not have appreciated it then, but your growth as a photographer teaches you how to better appreciate photos and lets you see your old photos in a new light.

Avoid distractions

Don’t read gear news, rumours or reviews. Focus on making the most out of your current gear. Spend your time creating photos.

Avoid analysing too much

Paralysis by analysis is all too common. You spend so much time studying photography that you have little or no time to shoot. Go forth and shoot. It is only through taking photos that you can actually gain experience that will help you grow as a photographer.

Go out of your comfort zone

Shoot outside your comfort zone. If you stay within your comfort zone you will only get the same types of photos that you got previously. Push yourself to do something challenging or difficult. What is challenging or difficult? Easy. What makes you feel uncomfortable. Discomfort is your mind’s way of telling you that it is doing something that it isn’t used to.

Remember, life is short. Just do it.

Shooting with a 24 mm lens

July 15, 2018 by Jenxi Seow

I shoot street photography with a 24 mm lens. One of the first things Charlie Kirk suggested I do to improve my street photos was to pick up a 24 mm lens. I was very hesitant because it meant I had to get very close to my subjects, something I wasn’t comfortable with.

Shooting with other focal lengths

I started off shooting street photography with my DSLR equipment. I had a Nikon D700 with a 50 mm and a 70-200 mm lens. These were used for street portraits of strangers, a project inspired by Danny Santos. However, they blurred out the background to isolate the subject. While the photos look good with the bokeh making the subjects pop out, the isolation also meant that the subjects felt disconnected from their surroundings.

While useful in portraiture photography where I wanted to isolate the subjects, telephoto and large aperture do not give the desired results in street photography.

I begun experimenting with wider lenses to try to incorporate more of the scene. I had a Nikon AF-D 35 mm lens and my Fujifilm X100 also had an effective focal length of 35 mm. I also had a Ricoh GR Digital III. Its 28 mm focal length was perfect for getting more of the scene in the frame, but I had to get much closer to my subjects.

My current setup is a Voigtlander 21 mm Color-Skopar f/4 SC lens on my Leica M8. This gives it an effective focal length of 24 mm. Such a wide angle does take some getting used to. But once you start getting good photos out of it, you’ll learn to appreciate how liberating this lens is.

Zone focusing

It can be hit and miss shooting street photography with a manual focus camera. However, using the 24 mm lens meant that I could easily shoot using zone focusing.

By shooting between f/8 and f/16, I could focus to the hyperfocal distance point to have the subject and background in focus. It doesn’t take long to get used to the distances. For my lens, the closest it can focus is 50 centimetres. That is roughly an arm length away. So I know how close I can get without my subjects going out of focus.

Flashes of brilliance

The Leica M8 as an old CCD sensor that is awful in low light wide open. At f/8 or f/16 in the day, it might still not be bright enough. So I have a flash permanently in my hot shoe. I was using my DSLR speedlight but at the recommendation of my buddy Daniel Ho, I’m now sporting a compact and lighter Viltrox Speedlite JY610II. Packs a punch. Small enough not to affect the balance like the larger flash lights would.

Using flash is a whole new topic that I won’t cover today. It is a whole school of lessons on its own. I’ll just point out what using flash can create three-dimensional effects through the use of shadows, or even flatten parts of the scene into two dimensions with blown out or absolute dark areas.

Going closer

Most of the street photographers I admired shot with wide angle lenses that allowed them to capture more of the scene and forced them to go close to the subjects.

It wasn’t easy getting used to the 24 mm lens. I realised I have to be in the thick of the action to get photos with my subjects filling the frame. But that is exactly why photos shot as this focal length smells of the street or the scene you’re at.

It immerses the viewer in the action because it was taken in the action.

Noticing clutter

Aside from getting out of my comfort zone and move closer to the people I want to shoot, I had be very conscious of what the frame includes. It is very easy for the lens to pick up distracting clutter in the scene.

Once you start to get the hang of using the focal length, you’ll notice that it is not hard to get rid of clutter. You just need to angle it right.

Angle it right

Put on a wide angle lens and give it a try. While maintaining the same height, twist your camera up and down to see how that affects your shots of the same subject. Next, try moving your hands up and down while doing that. Finally, bend and straighten your hands while you move your hands. Isn’t that amazing?

Now keep that lens on your camera and shoot it for a week or a month.

Flash mob in Orchard

March 2, 2013 by Jenxi Seow

Flash mobs are not uncommon in big cities. They are even less so at the busiest parts of these cities. However, I did not expect to encounter one when I took a brief walk along Orchard Road.

The theme of the day appeared on its own. Hats. I did not expect to snap so many photos of people wearing interesting hats.

Self-portrait to get myself started. I walk past this mirror every day. It is part of the playground below my home.

This large-beaked hat kicked off the series of hat shots.

There is a hat in this shot but it was the seen and unseen stare behind the shades that caught my attention.

Not only do they match their hats, they even match the way they place their shades!

Wearing a cap is useful if you need to mount a GoPro camera on your head. This camera man was taking videos of skaters doing stunts. They ended being a nuisance to the public walking along the busy street.

Then I got distracted.

When three cameras are set up like this and point at the same direction, you know something is going to happen.

I was wary of getting into the frame of the video cameras so this was the closest I could go. Many people whipped out their smartphones and cameras to take photos or videos of the mob, as you can see in the background of the shots.

Then, it was over as abruptly as it started.

My time for shooting was up and I had to go to another appointment.

Teaching improves your photography

February 6, 2013 by Jenxi Seow

Teaching others improves your photography because you actually learn in the process. When you teach, you discover how well you know a particular subject and, more importantly, the areas where your knowledge is lacking.

Some people are selfish and refuse to share their knowledge. They are reluctant to teach others because they are afraid that their students will improve as a result and eventually surpass them. This is a wrong mentality.

By being open and share your knowledge with others, you will end up learning more. They might ask questions that never occurred to you. You will gain a deeper understanding of the subject or even discover something new that might bring your photography to the next level.

Hence, I have a lot of respect for photographers who are very willing to share and teach others.

There are some photographers who refuse to even show their EXIF data. And there are those who will readily provide you with the information and even give an insight on how they took the shot.

Through the EXIF data, we can only tell what camera settings were used to take the particular shot. It is useful to beginners because it teaches them about exposure and how to change the settings to obtain their desired effect.

In my opinion, if others can recreate your shots by simply looking at your EXIF data, then your photo is not special enough.

Teaching is a passionate topic for me. All the more so when it is teaching about photography. I can write a lengthy piece about it but I shall stop here.

I have been teaching friends about the basics of photography and guiding them as they start out in the hobby. It has been a very fulfilling experience and I would be glad to continue with it in 2013.

If you are keen to learn, I am very willing to teach. Contact me and we can arrange for a session.

This photos are from a session I had with a couple of my friends. It covered the basics of photography as well as guidance on how to approach strangers to take their photos.

This girl was a student from La Salle School of Arts. She was doing a school project where she had to take photographs of a stranger. After explaining that I was doing a similar project, she gladly let me take a shot.

This hairstyle seems to be getting more popular recently.

My students for the day were Valerie and Joyce. Joyce has spent 2014 travelling around the world.

They were caught chimping. We set a rule against chimping after that. Still they were tempted to look at their screen at times. Nevertheless, they tried their best not to and I believe it helped in their photography.

One of the many camera T-shirts I bought in Bangkok.

We came across a mother and daughter with their pet dog at McDonald’s in Scape.

The girls’ busy snapping were punctuated by exclamations regarding the dog’s cuteness.

Another portrait of strangers. This is more akin to street fashion style.

This elderly man was very happy to be surrounded by photographers eager to take a photo of him. I think we made his day.

We spotted some cones. It seems like the cone invasion in Japan has spread to Singapore.

A guy was displaying his collection of Lee Kuan Yew figures in front of the Mandarin Gallery. He seems like a big fan of the founding father of Singapore.

A little boy with good taste.

First photo walk of 2013

January 23, 2013 by Jenxi Seow

I took my first photo walk in 2013 on the first weekend of the year to kick off 2013 with a bang. This is the first time I am shooting on the street since my last walk in late September.

For the past few months, I have been busy with portrait shoots. I enjoy working with models and makeup artists to create photos. However, my schedule and that of the models only allowed us to shoot on Sundays. My other day off for my current roster is on Mondays . I avoid shooting on the streets on Monday due to less crowds walking about in town. I’ve tried shooting on Mondays in the past and I could hardly find people to shoot along Orchard Road.

That said, I am looking into shooting at other locations that tourists would go to. I hope to find interesting subjects at those places. My Sundays have been fully booked for the rest of the month. So I need to find time to allow me to continue shooting street photography regularly.

At Charlie Kirk‘s encouragement, I‘ll be shooting with a wider focal length. I‘ll be using the Ricoh GRD III and the Fujifilm X100 as they have the effective focal length of 28mm and 35mm respectively. I might shoot with the AF-D 35mm f/2 on the D700 when I get the lens back from my brother but I would prefer to shoot at that focal length on the Leica M8. That would mean getting a wider lens and most probably a viewfinder for accurate framing.

Not a great shot but I want to highlight the purple fringing. I get it quite a lot when I shoot on the Voigtlander 35mm Nokton f/1.4 Classic SC. The only way around this is seems to be avoiding sudden transitions from light to dark in the shot or converting the shot to black and white. I can’t seem to correct the chromatic aberration in Lightroom. Leave a comment if you know a solution to this other than using a better lens.

Left: This is the first stranger I shot in 2013. Very interesting appearance but she was quite shy.

Right: The second stranger in the year. She’s a friend of the previous girl. I was able to chat with her a bit more and position her to get the catch-lights in her eyes and use the stairs in the background as leading lines.

Left: I wonder what error 99 is.

Right: I came across a two man crew filming along Orchard Road.

It‘s quite a challenge to shoot in Orchard Road on a Sunday. While there is the busy background on the street, having so many people walking around meant that they would inadvertently walk into the frame.

The actresses were pretty interesting. I could tell from their looks that they were sisters but they looked like they could even bee triplets. Each had their other half, the three guys in the background. I wonder if these guys were really their partners or merely fellow actors.

Left: Smart phone photography with style.

Right: This guy was shooting with a digital compact camera. He also had a Sprocket Rocket and a Fisheye Baby.

These two girls were wearing identical clothing except for their belts and shoes. I wonder if they wore that out of a close friendship or if that was their uniform.

Focusing on a particular theme or subject can help you to spot interesting things to photograph. However, in this shot, I noticed their identical clothing and ended up missing the lady in blue in the background. She was walking so fast that by the time I saw her, she had walked past me.

It‘s not the first time that I have seen these peculiar shades.

I was joined by my new friend Aaron.

My friend Valerie, who introduced Aaron to me. She likes to take photos of children and they really enjoy being photographed by this friendly stranger.

It was a pity that I was not able to shoot along Orchard Road during the Christmas holidays. It is a very good time to shoot street photography but I had other work scheduled for the whole of December.

I ended up taking a lot less photos than I would have preferred but I had a feeling that this would happen. Having not shot on the streets for a few months, I find that it takes me a while to get into the rhythm and even then it is a far cry from how I shot back in September.

There are a few other projects that I need to work on in the next couple of months so that would mean having to juggle street photography along with these projects. Chinese New Year is just around the corner and that would take up at least half of February. It does give me the opportunity to capture candid shots of my big extended family. So regardless of the genre, I will keep shooting. That is the only way to get better.

Unproductive days

December 15, 2012 by Jenxi Seow

There some days when you just feel disconnected from photography. I have found a few tricks to reset myself to get into the groove. But there are times when I know that it will be an unproductive day.

Sometimes, I would take a coffee break and pass time people watching, or if the location of the café is not ideal, I would browse through photos of other photographers for inspiration. And sometimes I would move to a different place to shoot.

Still, there would always be a chance that nothing would work and the photos turn out bad. I would decide to call it a day knowing that at least I got out and tried to shoot.

There was a Singapore Youth Festival performance held in the atrium in front of Ngee Ann City. This lion head had either completed its performance or was waiting for its turn.

Korean traditional dance? Their costumes were the most colourful and striking. The only other costume that came close was the pink tutu.

These tourists were either lost in a moment in time as they looked up in awe at the towering skyscrapers, or they had simply lost their way.

This was an interesting roadshow. The emcee was hiding somewhere and pretending to be the car. He was talking to people who went near the car, encouraging them to get into the car to get a feel of the interiors.

Finally, a convex mirror that is at a height where I can get a proper shot.

The others that I’ve spotted along Orchard Road are usually too high for little me.

Too much flair in this photo. Pun intended.

We have Danny on the left and Earvin in red on the far right. Two photographers I met and befriended while out shooting on the streets.

A guy with swag versus a guy lost in his own world.

A fellow photographer shooting from the thigh.

Shooting with the Leica M8 meant that I managed to snap the lady but missed out on the guy behind her. I wanted to take a shot of him too but I fumbled with the manual focus and the moment was gone.

They don’t look happy.

I went close compared to the other photographers. But in hindsight, I was not close enough.

I could probably make a series of people engaged in tablet photography.

Colour coordinated couple.

I guess the kid is too young to wear a skull hence the monkey head.

While none of the photos stood out, I am still glad I made the effort to shoot. I told myself to be disciplined and shoot every Sunday. That meant sacrificing sleep and waking up early in the morning to take a photo walk.

Even if the day was less productive, at least I made the effort to stick to my plan and shoot. Being able to keep up the momentum and shoot routinely is important. If I were to be set back by an unproductive day, I would actually start to question my passion for photography.